dead and the danger -- well, it's not over yet. >> it's got to be the largest storm that i can imagine in the state's history. >> it was 20 feet tall and crashing and boulders. >> you could see the water coming up and then we moved to higher ground. >> it's back on the east coast where it's a heart-breaking scene for those who have spent many a summer days on the jersey shore. firefighters remain on the site of a fire that left a boardwalk looking like a bomb went off. >> we have endured and begun to come back from the devastation of sandy. we will not let these fires destroy those efforts. >> and this is happening not far from a stretch of boardwalk that had to be rebuilt after superstorm sandy. >> coming over the bridge was -- it looked like -- it appeared like the whole town was on fire, it was that bad. >> nbc's kristen dahlgren joins me live from seaside park.

kristen, we just heard from governor christie in the last hour. i want to show people, though, this is the area and exactly what it looked like after sandy and then yesterday to today. are they any closer, though, to getting to the cause, the root of what started that fire? >> reporter: yes, thomas, that investigation is going on now. there are a number of agencies here looking at it. what the governor said is their focus up until this point has really been to get this fire stopped. you saw those winds yesterday and just how quickly this was moving, how quickly it was spreading and so their focus up to now has been on stopping it. it is now 95% contained. they're still worried about a couple of hot spots and still working on that as the investigation begins. they're beginning to do some damage assessment. they'll soon have what the financial toll is but really what we've been talking about today is the emotional toll on people here. i'm joined by angie lombardi. she was a business owner here. you went through sandy. you came down yesterday. your business was right here. >> yes, right there. >> reporter: it's gone. >> it's gone, yes.

this was the last building to go. >> reporter: what was it like to watch your hard-earned business yesterday go up in smoke? >> it was very hard, especially after the storm, rebuilding all these months and were still rebuilding and still don't have everything done with that. so for this to happen, it's like another five steps back. >> reporter: you saw it right after it started yesterday. what did it look like? >> well, i got a call saying there's a fire by your place. i came. there was no fire here. it was in the back. we ran back there. i parked right here in the parking lot. the candy shop was in flames, engulfed already, which it happened five minutes before. it started like 2:25. in 20 minutes, the whole section back there because the winds were about 40 miles an hour. >> reporter: such a quick-moving fire. >> yes. >> reporter: again, they have it 95% contained. we've heard a lot, thomas, about jersey strong, the governor talked about it. we see it in angie, people here say they will rebuild and by

next spring and summer, they're hoping to reopen again. back to you. >> again, it's a current investigation. hoping to get more facts out of that. kristen dahlgren reporting for us. thank you. the other developing story that we're watching today is the deadly record-setting flooding coming off colorado. rain is still falling and in some areas the waters are still rising along the front range region, that's north of denver. three people have been killed and boulder county officials say 17 people remain unaccounted for today. and at least one interstate is currently shut down. some smaller roads have been completely washed out, leaving several remote towns completely now cut off. colorado's governor spoke just a short time ago. take a look. >> i have not seen final numbers for the accumulation, you guys probably know this more than i, but if you include last night total rains, it's got to be the largest storm that i can imagine in the state's history. >> nbc's joe fryer is in the flood zone in the town of boulder, colorado. joe, explain exactly what you're seeing right now and also bring us up to speed on the

investigation and how they're trying to search for those 17 unaccounted for people. >> reporter: good morning, thomas. right now after a brief reprieve this morning, it is raining once again, which is not a welcome sight. behind me here you can see this road that sort of serves as a gauge. it is still quite flooded, not as bad as it was yesterday but there's still a lot of concern about flooding in the streets of boulder. last night thousands in boulder were evacuated, asked to move to higher ground. there were reports that a 30-foot wall, a surge of mud and water and debris was heading toward boulder. but in the end that dissipated before getting into town. still there's concern throughout the northern colorado area, in commerce city there were evacuations last night out of concerns that a dam could be bursting there. and then you mentioned some of the other towns that are basically cut off from the rest of the state, places like lyons, places like jamestown, the roads in and out of those places basically washed away. many of those people are without power or without telephone.

now, the colorado national guard has been called in. they are trying to help get some people out of those towns, like lyons and get them to safer ground and that's especially important when you consider that the rain here just continues to fall, thomas. >> our joe fryer reporting for us outside of denver. joe, thanks so much. now we move on to the political crisis about syria. there have been some positive signs in the last 24 hours, but so far really no true breakthrough. bashar al assad has said that his country will now sign on to the international ban on chemical weapons, but that commitment is being met with skepticism from the u.s. as well as others. back in geneva, secretary of state john kerry says talks with the russians on a possible deal to take control of syria's chemical weapons will continue when the u.n. general assembly meets in new york in two weeks. >> i will say on behalf of the united states that president obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution with respect to syria.

and we know that russia is likewise. >> meanwhile rebel forces report new shelling in the suburbs of damascus. one resident telling reuters it seems that the government is back to its old routine. new york congressman gregory meeks is a democrat on the house foreign affairs committee and joins me here in studio. sir, it's great to have you here, and let's get right into this. we talk about russia and it being an honest broker, using vladimir putin and seeing that op-ed in "the new york times," how confident are you in trusting vladimir putin to successfully oversee the operation, to take out and successfully remove the chemical weapons syria now admits to having? >> i like what i'm hearing. i like what secretary kerry is saying. you know, negotiations, especially when you're trying to do something -- have a negotiated peace, it's difficult. it's hard. the secretary has been clear he's going to make sure there is no stalling done, but he sounds more hopeful also. the fact that talks are continuing, that's a very

positive development in my estimation. >> meanwhile we're seeing these reports coming from reuters that shelling continues in damascus, syrian government up to its old tricks. so lives remain on the line in syria, innocent lives, while everybody kicks around what the heck to do. >> but, we still have made progress because they're at least now talking. we know that the end of the syria crisis could not happen without russia. that was clear. to have the russians and the united states talking and, you know, understand that it looks like we've got these chemical weapons deal that has to be done also, but they cannot be any utilization of chemical weapons. that's what the president was talking about when we were talking about intervening in the first place was because of the utilization of chemical weapons. >> so the u.n. general assembly meeting in two weeks here in new york. we also learned that john kerry will be traveling to jerusalem on sunday to meet with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. obviously their main topic will be the middle eastern peace talks but syria will be front f

and center in that krconversati as well. can the u.s. walk and chew gum at the same time? we've got a lot of big domestic fish at home to fry but there's a lot on the front burner foreign policywise. can we do it all? >> absolutely. you have to do it all. number one the world is much smaller so you can't ignore the world. that's why i'm encouraged more people are talking and you have more countries engaged. that's the way that you resolve some of our international issues. domestically, we had a big setback, i think, in the house this weekend when the republicans withdrew their continues resolution which says there's some hard times in the future in regards to whether or not they're going to shut down the government or not. and so we will be focusing on that. but we have to do both because they're both very important to us. >> let's talk specifically, though, about where we're going domestically because september 30th, october 1st, that date coming down the line with what we are doing in this country with our federal budget. it's like deja vu all over again

for people on capitol hill as we re-evaluate where the right stands in terms of what they want to do as opposed to the left. do you think that there can be common ground found between now and the end of the month? >> i'm amazed by the republican majority. 40 times we have already voted in regards to the affordable care act. this is what this is all about. so now they want a 41st time to say that they're going to hold the budget and the continuing resolution hostage to try to end what is law. law that we passed in congress. law that was approved by the supreme court of the united states. it just seems to me the definition of insanity to continue to do the same thing all over again with the same result. >> so what kind of plan can we see from the democratic party, if you can recognize insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, what do you do differently this time to get and provide a more provocative result out of the republicans. >> this is why i'm nervous because it would seem to me that they would follow their leadership, speaker boehner. but speaker boehner tries to

come up with something last week and there's a revolt within his party. now, i wish that they would listen to rationale and i would hope the people in the public would start making noise that they do not want government to shut down. that's the only thing to avert it. i hope they're not trying to walk off a cliff again. >> it's coming. >> it is coming. >> the cliff is coming, my friend, it is. new york congressman gregory meeks, thanks for being here. a pleasure. a florida brief's shocking response to a concerned citizen who called george zimmerman another aurora and sandy hook waiting to happen. also ahead this hour, five years after the financial meltdown, just how better off are we? and have americans forgiven wall street even just a little? jerry bernstein, former economic adviser to vice president joe biden, joins me next. check it out. i can't believe your mom has a mom cave! today i have new campbell's chunky spicy chicken quesadilla soup. she gives me chunky before every game. i'm very souperstitious. haha, that's a good one! haha!

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i just want to keep you posted on one of our lead stories today coming to us out of the boardwalk area, seaside heights of new jersey, as they have just been ravaged after suffering through this enormous fire there. firefighters are still on the scene of that ten-alarm boardwalk fire. you can see the new pictures there on your right. the fire being 95% contained. 30 different businesses affected and damage stretching over a four-block radius. again, no known cause yet but it is currently under investigation. they're trying to get to the bottom of what started that. five years ago on sunday, the financial meltdown began and the nation has been inching back slowly ever since. nbc news decided to take a look at how people felt about the economy and in a new poll found main street is still sour on wall street. 42% have a negative view of wall street banks. only 14% have a positive view and 52% say they have been affected in the collapse in the last three to five years.

52% disapprove of the job president obama is doing with the economy. it is the fifth straight poll where this number is upside down. joining me now is jerry bernstein, former economic policy adviser to vice president joe biden and an msnbc contributor. it's good to have you here. as we look at those approval numbers for the president on the economy, upside down for five straight polls, does this mean obama really can't blame former president bush for economic policy anymore? he has his own to live up to now. >> i think that's a fair assessment. i also think that this split between wall street and main street is not just conspicuous in these poll numbers but in actual real numbers about how the economy is doing. if you look at who's recovered from the great recession, you'll very quickly recognize that it's the folks at the very top of the income scale. in fact another study that just came out showed that over the past three years of the recovery, 95% of the growth accumulated to the very top 1%. and so if you're in the middle

on down, you're typically doing worse than you were a few years ago. so i think in that context, the results probably make a lot of sense. >> so as we look at where the blame should go or at least what the temperature is for that, the poll found out that while democrats do a better job of looking out for the middle class, republicans do a better job dealing with the economy. 33 to 29%. so what do republicans have that the democrats don't? perception being reality and all? >> perception being reality, what the republicans have had on this issue over the last few years is very important. it's called aobstructionism. that is the president has numerous times proposed measures that would help improve the job market. infrastructure investment, jobs measures, wage subsidies. now, we can have good arguments about whether those would work or not but my research, pretty extensive in this field, suggests that at times like this they do help a lot. but the congress, the republican congress in particular, has blocked him every step of the

way. so it's one thing to say the president owns the economy, as you said earlier, but it's one thing to say he didn't fix it. another to say he actually tried and was blocked. >> so the unemployment rate before the crash was 6.1%. it spiked up to 10% and it now stands at 7.3%. the other thing i want to get out there, the poll found there is pessimism about upward mobility in this country. of those considering themselves poor or working class, just 29% thought it was at least fairly likely they would move into the middle class in the next five years. nearly 40% said it was not likely at all that they would move up. now, this is just the basic tenet of our structure as kids growing up in this country, to attain the american dream, to do better than our parents did and to feel secure and provide for the families that we want to raise. is this, this sour feeling, the new normal? >> you know, that sour feeling is increasingly being borne out in data in research that looks at that very phenomena.

there still exists some level of upward mobility. it's not that the dream is dead by any means, but it's harder to achieve. the barriers to opportunity, to mobility, are a lot higher than they used to be. and again, part of that comes down to politics. one of the things that we've done is made it more difficult, for example, for young people to access quality education, whether at the elementary school level or in college. and that's historically a key mobility barrier. >> fascinating look inside with these new numbers out, jared bernstein, always great to have you on. enjoy your weekend. >> thank you. another pick, a dad donning daisy dukes to teach his daughter a lesson. there he is in his best dad ever t-shirt. check him out, he's in utah. he was fed up with his daughter wearing the short shorts so he decided to make his own pair to make a point. jeans and some scissors resulted in this gem of a portrait.

his wife took the pictures, but it was actually his kids that put the picks up online and that is where the best dad ever went viral. today's producer's pick is also the topic of our question of the day. does shame parenting work? let's hear from you. weigh in on facebook or tweet me pictures of you in your sexy jean shorts.

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popularity is not fading any time soon and all of this is making twitter the most anticipated ipo since facebook's debut last may. but given facebook's rocky start, we're seeing signs that twitter takes some lessons from its social media counterpart. julia joins me from san francisco to break it down for us. julia, as we look at media sites that have gone crazy for this, we've got the post, the huffington post as we see the cover there, the #ipo, it's simple but speaks volumes, certainly to the mass the wall street twitter has. as this comes days after facebook, what can twitter learn from how facebook faltered out of the gate? >> well, i think twitter has already learned a lot. i mean one thing that twitter has done up until now that's very different than what facebook did is twitter is not letting very many of its shares trade on the secondary market. facebook allowed many more of its shares to trade on the secondary market, that means before it went public, and that

really pushed up facebook's valuation. twitter is a smaller company with a much lower valuation. you said its valuation was $10 billion. that was roughly the valuation at its last round of funding. on the secondary market there are some shares that are trading. it's valued closer to $15 billion. so investors are really hoping that that valuation does not get inflated. we expect twitter to issue many fewer shares than facebook, but also just remember it's a much smaller company. >> all right. so twitter, though, keeping quiet about how many shares it will offer. is there talk about how much they will actually cost, and when will they trickle down to regular people? because it seems as if the premiere investors will get first crack at this. >> well, it's really too soon to say. all we know right now is that twitter filed a preliminary s-1 that was a confidential s-1. twitter didn't even need to release that information. they didn't need to tell us that, but they did just to let us know this process was in motion.

we don't get any information about twitter's plans, the number of shares they plan to offer, the price range that they're looking at, until 21 days before they start their ipo road show. so it could be a couple of months. what's happening right news is twitter will be going back and forth to the s.e.c. making sure that they have all of their ducks in a row before we, the public, get to see their data. >> we'll be in for a fast and long ride on this one. julia, great to see you. thank you. here's a look at some of the stories topping the news now. apple started taking orders for its new iphone at twelve:01 a.m. start. the 5c comes in a host of different colors for you and a 4-inch display. lance armstrong has returned his olympic medal. armstrong was stripped of his win eight months ago after confessing that he used performance-enhancing drugs. the bronze medal was for armstrong's third place finish in the 2000 summer games. three friends accused of

boston bomber tsarnaev will be arraigned in a boston courtroom. two are accused of hindering the investigation by taking a backpack and laptop from tsarnaev's dorm room. the third is accused of lying about it. well, a massive molasses spill in hawaii has killed thousands of fish. this spill happened as the molasses was being pumped from storage tanks on a container ship near honolulu. state experts say they have no way of cleaning up the sticky substance. one giant leap for frogkind. have you seen this picture? a photographer captured the launch of a moon-bound rocket earlier this month. look at who photo bombed the shot. little froggy there. he was sent on the ride of his life. this took place at the flight facility in virginia and nasa confirms the image, that is the real deal. ♪

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christie grapples with another shore disaster. and boehner's budget battle looking like he's asking anyone, anyone for ideas now. those are today's topics for our agenda panel. sebrina is a politics reporter with the huffington post, bill share is a senior writer at campaign for america's future. gang, it's great to have you all here. bill, let me start with you. as we look into rand paul and stumping on behalf of republican senatorial candidate in new jersey, this is the race cory booker is in and looks like he has a decisive lead. what does this say about what's going on in the party with rand paul showing up on christie's turf? >> he's showing christie up. this is bad news for christie. christie is already considered suspect by the rank in file republicans because he stood with president obama in the aftermath of hurricane sandy and didn't stump for mitt romney at the end of the 2012 campaign. now christie has been basically keeping his distance from

lonigan because he's certificate final and christie wants to be seen as a sane republican going into 2016. but conservatives have it out for cory booker. there's a booker truther moment going on. rand paul wants to lead that. rand is coming in and effectively saying i'm not going to let the establishment tell republicans who's electable and who's not. i'm going to fight the good fight. >> let's talk to igor about the examples on the extreme lonigan positions because he's out there on food stamps, disaster relief. why would rand paul campaign for a guy that you say is not going to win? >> well, thomas, i think it just highlights this great rift that we now see in the republican party. you have these ideological purists like rand paul who believe that working mothers don't need food stamps, they can just go ahead and work a little harder to get by. that new jersey doesn't need any aid after sandy or doesn't need that much aid because it can just do it all on its own. we need to shrink the size of government.

these kinds of positions, i think, nationally really tarnish the republican brand when it comes to appealing to the new coalition of voters. african-americans, women. but for rand, that's his part of the republican base. that's the base he has to activate if he wants to be a viable candidate in 2016 and that's why he's showing up there. for him, it's really the long game to move the party to the right and to make it idea logically pure. >> meanwhile in jersey and around are paying attention to what that state is going through, again, on their seashore there because the governor is in the spotlight after this massive boardwalk fire, right after sandy, and they spent so much time getting ready for the summer to recover and now they have to go through this at the end of their summer. the governor just spoke a short time ago about the emotional toll of yesterday's fire. take a look. >> it takes an emotional toll, but last night i went home, you know, i showered, i went to sleep for a few hours and i

don't have the luxury of getting tired. this is a job the people gave me to do and i'm here to do it. >> so bill says, sebrina, that rand paul is coming into christie's turf making him look bad. is that just the optics of all of this or do you think that there will be verbal digs? >> i don't think it makes him look too bad actually. part of this is unfortunate circumstances of what's happening in new jersey right now. this is chris christie's strength. this is a moment for him to once again show his leadership, show that he's strong and resilient, that new jersey will get past these new set of circumstances. hurricane sandy is one of the stronger moments in terms of the christie legacy. he's not interested in the politics. i think this is a moment where he doesn't have to be involved in the petty back and forth within the republican party or sort of trying to get the political upper hand. he's just going to focus on recovery and putting the -- making sure that new jersey is back in a strong position. >> do you think that paul will take digs at christie or just focus on trying to take down cory booker for lonegan's sake? >> i don't think he'll take

digs. he was interviewed about chris christie and he declined to criticize the governor. he said he actually invited him out at this campaign event for lonegan and the governor declined and he didn't get back into that feud. i think he's trying to sort of tout his own conservative credentials. >> so let's talk about john boehner. as john boehner has now been -- the onus is on him about the budget. we have a hill reporter asking him if he had any new ideas to resolve the government funding fight. he said why don't you give me one so they can shoot it down too. so give him one idea, that's what he's asking the reporter. how helpful is all of this? boehner would say they have already been through all of this. they have drafted what their stake is in all of this and how they want things to go. it's up to the democrats to come to the table to play with them. >> well, i think, thomas, one idea that we could all give to boehner is to put together a continuing resolution that can garner democratic support and this way he can pass it with a majority. this phenomenon that you can

only bring a bill forward if it's supported by the majority of your caucus or majority of republicans, it's kid of a new feature in washington. you used to have leaders in congress who would compromise across the aisle, who would work with the other side and really get something done. that's really what boehner needs to do. if he's not running for speaker, if he isn't worried about what comes next in terms of his political speaker, then putting together a continuing resolution that both sides can agree on is just one way, i think, to keep the government open. >> getting both sides to agree. bill, explain how much of boehner's speakership is on the line here if he doesn't come up with a deal. >> well, it depends how you view on the line. there is a report that boehner might not run for speaker again in 2014 because he's so sick of this. he has to decide what he wants the legacy of his speakership to be. does he want his legacy to be the guy who couldn't keep the government open because they were so dysfunctional or as a speaker who made history and got

big things done. the only reason not to do what iger is suggesting is because you're worried about a coup from your own party. >> i was going to say if he wants to go out on top, bill, like you are saying, he's not on top right now. >> he's not on top, but this is the moment for him to relead. people often pose this question about president obama can he lead on these budget battles. when it comes to passing something through the house, it's on speaker boehner to lead. he has to look at this like it is. his conference, certainly the hard liners, will not be happy with any of these budget deals, no matter what the outcome is, because the president is not going to delay, defund or repeal obama care and that's simple low not going to happen. so he needs to broker a deal with the white house. then he brokers a deal with democrats and passes something with majority democratic support. >> gang, thanks so much. have a great weekend and you can always find more from our panel on our website tv.com -- excuse

me on our website, tv.msnbc.com. follow the link to my name. there are new e-mails over the handling of the domestic dispute between george zimmerman and his wife shellie. shortly after the domestic dispute, a resident named santiago rodriguez e-mailed the police chief demanding to know why george zimmerman had not been charged. rodriguez ended his e-mail by saying zimmerman is a sandy hook, aurora waiting to happen. your job is to protect the communities you serve. you are failing big-time. lake mary police chief replied in a lengthy 17-point e-mail. one of the points said, quote, your reference to sandy hook, i agree. now, the resident followed up with a thank you e-mail urging the police chief not to give up on the investigation saying, quote, george is a ticking time bomb. it's become obvious. the chief replied again, and in part of the e-mail wrote as for your final thoughts, again, on a personal note, i agree. joining me now is attorney faith

jenkins. faith, good to have you here and a lot to talk about with this. so nbc news reached out to the police chief by phone, who said i received many e-mails from sender citizens on the zimmerman thing and i felt it was important that i respond to them the best i could. i have some concerns about zimmerman. i think a lot of people do. he also tells nbc news that everywhere he pops up, the word firearm pops up. do i think that's problematic? yes. so, faith, what is your take on the police chief's candor? >> well, i don't think that he should be detailing -- giving details about the investigation in private e-mails to citizens. those details -- some of those details were not even in the police report and he's connoting them in the e-mail as if he's having another conversation with another law enforcement official so he's giving a lot of details in the e-mail that i don't think was appropriate to do. >> nbc news also asked zimmerman's legal team for a response and has been told a response is forthcoming. is there a chance, though, that the police department has opened

itself up to a potential legal crisis claim from george zimmerman? >> for example, on the defamation claim or something like that? >> sure. >> i don't think so. when you look at defamation, you're talking about a false statement that could ruin someone's reputation or have a negative impact on someone's reputation. here the police chief was more so giving his opinion. and in most cases show that opinions are not actionable conduct and you really have to go into court and be able to prove whether or not a statement is true or false, that's the standard. if it can't be proven, for example, then that's considered to be an opinion and wouldn't be actionable. so i don't think he's opened himself up to a defamation claim in this particular instance. >> even with him putting him in the same sentence as sandy hook and aurora. >> not a good choice of words. very poor choice of wording for the police chief. but in a sense he was giving his opinion and expressing his concerns about george zimmerman, which a lot of people have expressed their own concerns, not using that language, but i think he was sort of adding to the concern that other citizens

in this community have already expressed. >> i can imagine santiago rodriguez must have been floored by getting this e-mail exchange and probably appreciated the police chief's honesty or at least candor in their discussion back and forth. >> right. but you still have to be really careful. when you are a police chief, you are an investigator in the case, not to communicate details about the investigation of private citizens. >> attorney faith jenkins, great to see you. thanks so much. well, get this. have you seen this? mark o'mara, who was george zimmerman's attorney during his trial, isn't representing him any longer. guess what he's doing instead. do you know, faith? >> no, i don't. >> look at this. >> oh, wow. >> he is part of an orlando area "dancing with the stars." look, yes. there he is. this is a local celebrity get involved. they get to work with a professional dancer. this is the picture that he's using to promote the show. the event pairs celebrities with those pro dancers and will raise money for a local charity. what do you think? >> i think that that's interesting. >> interesting.

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welcome back, everybody. we continue to follow the developing news out of colorado. we have a new portion of video just coming in now. national guard troops helping to evacuate people in the wake of the flash flooding there. this is in lyons, colorado. up to 25 people have been evacuated from their homes. earlier in the hour we had joe fryer on the scene saying the rains had just started to pick up again. you can see the national guardsman holding the umbrella over the person they're loading into the back of that ambulance there. we'll keep our eye on that. also some developing news in the push to get syria to hand over its now admitted chemical weapons stockpile. less than a day after the assad regime said they'd sign onto the chemical weapons ban, we just learned the foreign minister requested technical assistance. by some estimates syria has a

thousand tons of chemical weapons. assuming that president assad agrees to give up his stockpile, what do you do with them? alan boyle just wrote about what it would take to destroy syria's stockpile of chemical weapons. it's great to have you here, certainly with your expertise. what kind of chemicals are we talking about here? while we talk about their safe removal and then to oversee their safe destruction, what is done to destroy them? >> well, syria has several types of chemical weapons. the blister agents, the mustard gas we remember from world war i movies and the nerve agents, sarin and vx. they're all nasty materials. so that's a big issue is what you're going to do to get rid of them. and assuming that syria follows through, they're going to have to go through whole international routine in order to monitor those weapons, get them in, keep a watch on them and eventually destroy them. that's what this process with

the watchdog agency is all about, to try to do that in a way that people are assured that those weapons are really gone. >> so, alan, we've really leapfrogged here because syria will not admit that it used these weapons on its own people. however, they have now come forward to admit that they have these mysterious weapons that everyone had always considered them to have. and i think the french have the most damning facts about the 1,000 tons of chemical weapons, but we do know there are five different places that they have been moving around syria. and they have been on the move to make everybody keep guessing about where they could be. these are very scattered. so it's like finding a needle in a haystack. how do we find all these needles if we don't know if we're working with honest people in syria, especially from the assad regime? >> that's a huge issue, thomas. in fact there are reports that syria has been moving those weapons around to as many as 50

places to try to keep them hidden. and so if they go through with this disclosure process, they're going to have to tell the opcw, this watchdog agency, where these weapons are and the inspectors from the agency are going to have to monitor those weapons. but it's an issue of verification that syria really is telling the truth. and so this agency will be receiving reports. there are all sorts of intelligence reports that the u.s. and other countries are getting. they'll pass them on to the inspectors. if syria may have a cache of chemical weapons that they're not telling anyone about, the opcw has the ability to go in there and do a challenge inspection, but it's a very tricky issue and that's going to be one of the big challenges going forward. >> a lot to talk about. alan boyle, thanks so much. i want to recommend to everybody that they be sure to read alan's entire article. you can find it at nbcnews.com. alan, thanks again, sir. appreciate it. coming up next, this week's friday feature, our go and do.

a young man with a love for music loses his battle with cancer, but his legacy lives on through his parting song and what it's doing for others just like him after this. one in eight baby boomers are experiencing memory problems. one-third of the boomers surveyed said memory loss was affecting their work and personal lives. half didn't tell doctors about their symptoms, which is important to identify possible solutions. a change in diet, physical activities and brain game exercises may be prescribed to help. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. ron: i'm sorry, who are you? jc: i'm your coworker! c'mon guys, i'm driving.

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welcome back, everybody. time for go and do our friday feature focusing on an organization that's reaching out and improving the lives of others. this week's group is helping raise money for research for a rare cancer all while keeping the memory of a special teen alive, zach's fund is part of the children's cancer research fund. zach helped start this fund after learning about his terminal diagnoses.

he passed away in may after battling the rare cancer four years. in the months leading up to his death he became a youtube sensation after raising awareness and saying good-bye to family and friends. ♪ ♪ ♪ go up in the clouds the view is a little nicer ♪ >> with me right now is laura sobiech, zach's mom. so nice to have you here. from me, my team, we're so sorry for your loss. zach became the face of this rare disease. mostly attacks small children and teens. through the leadership of you and your husband, zach's dream is being realized because his song clouds has 8 million views to date. walk us through how the foundation is utilizing that to raise money and where the money is going.

>> the fund is through children cancer research fund. the money will eventually be given to the university of minnesota. there's a team of researchers and doctors at the u of m who are actually dedicating their lives to touchdowning this disease and hopefully someday be able to wipe it off the face of the earth. so that's our hope. >> in the days leading up to your son's passing, celebrities, including jason mraz, bryan cranston, sarah silverman made a tribute as a way to help zach go ahead and spread that message. what's the feedback you've gotten as the organization has gotten out of the gate? >> you know, it's just been overwhelmingly positive. for some reason zach's story and the song and the various tributes have just really touched people's lives in totally unexpected ways. so the response that we've gotten is just overwhelm kpli positive and hopeful.

people are supporting the fund. we're raising a lot of money towards eradicating this disease. >> a documentary was made chronicling zach's final days. i know you're writing a book about his life. but laura, how are you and the family doing? how are you coping since zach's passing? >> it's -- you know, day by day. it's hard but we're doing all right. you know, we've really -- through the walk with zach through this disease, we've come together as a family and friends and just really held each other up. so we're doing all right. >> laura, it's great to have you on. thanks for sharing what you and your family are doing. you're certainly leaving a tremendous legacy for zach. he's very proud i'm sure of all the work you have done for him. so thanks for joining us today. >> thank you. >> we want to encourage everybody. >> thank you. >> laura, thank you. >> tweet us using the #goanddo

and we may feature them in an upcoming story. we thank you for sharing your story with us. that's going to wrap things up. have a great weekend. now alex wagner. hi there, alex. >> hi, thomas. a packed show on friday including secretary of state john kerry warning russia this is not a game. but what exactly is vladimir putin playing? we'll talk trust issues and saddam hussein comparisons with our very own steve kornacki. bloomberg's josh green and matt iglesias join us for a five year retrospective of names, faces and fallouts of the financial crisis. it's friday, a wrap day. a conversation with 2chainz. i will talk with atlanta's new hip-hop king about his new album, his new cookbook and what me time means to him. all that when "now" starts right after this. run, go, go! did he just fumble? "i" formation! "i" formation! we have got to get the three-technique block! i'm not angry. i'm not yellin'.

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from arabic into russian and on into english. is something getting lost in translation? friday september 13th and this is "now." despite new and untenable demands from syrian president bashar al assad, a scathing op-ed from russian president vladimir putin and a sense that negotiations with the syrian government will soon hit stumbling blocks day two of diplomacy with the kremlin got off to a relatively good start. this morning meeting with russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and u.n. envoy to syria, secretary of state john kerry said talks in geneva have been constructive and each side is committed to working together. but this upbeat attitude comes a day after tense negotiations and early tests from the syrian government. yesterday the u.n. said it received syria's documents to join the chemical weapons convention which bans the manufacture, use or stockpiling